Monday, March 01, 2010
Have Your Say, February 2010
A selection of free resources and opportunities for schools, teachers and learners.
The foreign language teaching forum runs a website to support the teaching of modern foreign languages . There are many free resources and discussions for teachers. Also an extensive list of recommended websites, organised by language, which offer useful and free resources in the target language, including how to access tv and radio stations online. Visit the website.
The School Food Trust has launched a new campaign. Canteen Rescue was launched in February 2010 to support schools in improving the dining experience for their students and staff. Judy Hargadon, Chief Executive at the School Food Trust, commented: "It is clear that when children walk into a dining hall that is crowded, noisy and unattractive, they will vote with their feet - no matter what is on the menu. Minor and affordable changes can make a big difference, such as staggering lunch queues to give children more time to eat, introducing tablecloths and replacing plastic plates, knives and forks with crockery and cutlery. Research by the trust found that these changes led to a 38% reduction in the amount of food thrown away. The Canteen Rescue campaign has a new competition that offers five schools the chance to win a professional makeover for their canteen. Parents, teachers and pupils in primary and secondary schools can nominate their school canteen for a makeover by visiting the competition website. Closing date is April 10th.
English Club is a free website for teachers and learners of English. It offers a wide range of support and resources as well as forums and targeted help for particular issues in learning English. The website has users from all over the world. All resources and free and downloadable.
The 2010 ICT Excellence Awards are now open for entries until 24 March 2010. The Awards, run by BECTA, aim to identify and reward whole school excellence in ICT and reward those organisations which support school improvement with ICT. Visit the website to enter.
Becta have produced free resources for schools and local authorities to support the development of 21st century learning. Just published in January 2010 and free to download are a booklet specifically designed to support teachers in using technology in daily school life, 21st Century Teacher and a booklet to support learners, Inspiring Learners. These and many others are available from the BECTA website.
National Schools Partnership was set up by parents with links in business and creative industries to provide access to schools to free new innovative resources. Schools register and are then sent resources to try for free. Registration is free as are all resources, including postage and packaging. The website also contains free resources which can be downloaded.
Animation 10 is a competition launched by the University of Manchester to support the use of animation by children. Open to children and young people aged 7-19, to submit a short animation made on their computer. Entries can be from individuals, or groups (of up to 4 members) and the animation can be up to one minute long. All entrants will receive a certificate and winners will be invited to an Animation Festival at the Lowry centre to receive their prizes. The competition is open until April 2010. For more information and to view last year’s winners, go to the website.
A new creative writing competition for children and young people has been launched by Michael Morpurgo. The Wicked Young Writers’ Award will be open to all British young people aged from 5 to 25. There will be four age categories for children: 5-7 years, 8-10 years, 11-13 years and 14-16 years. They can choose what they write about and whether to write it as prose or poetry. . The final date for entries is July 23. The 80 final winners will be invited to an awards ceremony at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in the autumn. A selection of the winning entries will also be published in an anthology. Other prizes include books and writing masterclasses for schools. To find out more, visit the Wicked Young Writers Award website for more information and to apply . The writing can be from school or home and entered via a teacher school or independently. The website also contains free resources to support entry to the competition.
Next Generation TV is part of the Next generation scheme organised by Becta to promote understanding of the role of technology in education. The Next Generation TV site provides a wide range of videos on all aspects of learning. It is possible to create your own playlist. Each video has a short intro. Very easy to navigate and access the videos.
8th March is International Women’s Day which has been running since 1911 and recognised by countries across the world with some such as China and Russia marking it as a national holiday. There are many free resources and events taking place across the UK. Visit the Women's Day website for more information.
There are still some places left on the Take Note conference taking place in London on March 9th and 10th, run by the DCSF. The conference is open to all Headteachers and places are free. The conference is part of Tune in – National Year of Music. For a useful summary visit the teachernet site from which you can download the invitation and details.
The Human Rights Friendly Schools Project has been launched by Amnesty International to to promote a culture of human rights in secondary schools through supporting school communities to integrate human rights values and principles into key areas of school life. It aims to demonstrate the global validity of a human rights friendly schools approach. Schools in 14 countries are involved in the first ever global education project b for school by Amnesty International. For the Human Rights Friendly Schools project, Amnesty International envisions the creation of learning communities where young people and adults are active in the life of the school and work together in a spirit of cooperation and in the pursuit of knowledge. The Human Rights Friendly Schools project will promote the development of a culture of human rights in school communities through integrating human rights values and principles across four major areas of school life:
- school governance
- community relations between teachers, staff and students
- curriculum
- extra-curricular activities
Schools taking part are networked to be able to share ideas and experiences and will then be used to as examples for other schools interested in promoting human rights through their school ethos and practice. Schools wishing to take part in the project can register on the website.